Stupid question coming from somone who's new to all of this. I recently acquired an Exposure 3010 CD player and have it wired into my integrated amp using the analogue RCA outputs from the CD player. I also own a Pro-Ject DAC Box. Am I better with the set up I have as described or should I use the digital output from the CD player and wire it through the DAC and then into the amp?
The answer is that it will not make any difference.
Digital equipment is not like analog equipment, where fine engineering really does count.
Bits are bits, and the beauty of digital equipment is that it is self correcting. So the only stage that has any possible bearing on sound is the analog section. However, I'm yet to find any player where the analog section is bad enough that it will degrade the sound.
The fact is that the sound of a system is totally dominated by the speakers and the room environment.
In the end that is the only thing that counts.